4 ms·

I will say, for anybody reading and finds it in any way uplifting, I have been a Windows user for 30 years, been a .net developer for 5 years at one point, groa

I will say, for anybody reading and finds it in any way uplifting, I have been a Windows user for 30 years, been a .net developer for 5 years at one point, groaned at how bad the 'Linux desktop' always was, but this year I finally switched to using Linux instead of Windows and I think it's because the inflexion point is starting to hit more of the masses.

int_19h 8mo ago
AI is the best thing that happened to desktop Linux!
- digiown 8mo ago
  This actually. AI is dramatically better at helping users deal with perennial issues that Linux gets, and using the command line to fix them, compared to Microsoft's fresh new bug introduced last Tuesday or navigating anti-user GUI.
  - wookmaster 8mo ago
    You’re absolutely correct what used to take me hours reading docs and googling now takes minutes to find an answer to. Just this week my new beelink I couldnt get hardware acceleration working for transcoding. A couple prompts lead me to the fact the gpu was new and I needed a newer Linux kernel. I probably would have spent hours and hours fiddling with device drivers and configs in the past.
  - therein 8mo ago
    That is true but I believe he meant it as Microsoft shoving AI down your throat in every part of Windows driving people away into Linux.
  - raincole 8mo ago
    That sounds... quite bad, to be honest. I never met one single Windows issue that can't be answered by simple google search for years. A desktop expecting the user to ask AI(!) for solutions that require command line(!!) is definitely not for average users.
    - WD-42 8mo ago
      Because hacking the registry or installing 3rd party de-bloat tools is for average users? You only think so because you've done it a bunch of times.
    - jwrallie 8mo ago
      High user count will make much more information available, but once in a while you will hit one bad issue that is niche enough, and your only hope will be to reach MS. At that point I'd rather deal with an LLM that know the insides of my open source OS than MS support. Have you seen their community answers on the web? I'd rather deal with Arch wiki and the command line even without an LLM.
  - bbkane 8mo ago
    I've been amazed at AI's usefulness for Linux sysadmin tasks. Last week I installed KDE on a new computer with two identical SSDs. One I wanted to wipe for the OS and the other I wanted to keep the data on. Unfortunately I couldn't tell which one to install the OS on! ChatGPT helped me open a terminal and run the correct udevadm and lsblk commands to see what files existed on each disk.
    - bubblethink 8mo ago
      Good use case and an example of brokenness of UX on Linux in many small and subtle ways. It frustrates me to no end that GNOME, Nautilus, etc. will truncate or hide information in many places. I don't think this has been fixed but the launcher will truncate names with ellipsis. So analyzer will appear as "anal..."
  - x______________ 8mo ago
    >AI is dramatically better at helping users deal with perennial issues that Linux gets This was my first thought. All Linux troubleshooting with AI resulted in hallucinatory commands that don't exist or work on this version of the OS, and managed to help me trash one system installation. Has anything changed?
    - subscribed 8mo ago
      A lot has changed since ChatGPT 2.0. You could give it a go again :)
- thorum 8mo ago
  AI for help figuring things out and Timeshift for when you accidentally break something. One reboot and it’s fixed.
- bpavuk 8mo ago
  given that: - AI is what gave Nvidia reason to finally work on GPU drivers (Linux is premier environment for AI/ML workloads) - LLMs are more useful on Linux than on Windows (although manuals are still unbeatable) - Windows users are sick of Copilot bullshit ...yeah, I almost agree. the best thing that happened to Linux is Valve consistently pouring a ton of resources into open-source Linux projects, but AI bubble firmly holds the second place position.
gregoryl 8mo ago
Ditto, but .net dev for ~20 years, now fully Linux for personal compute. Workplace is making a beeline for mac / linux full stack, and completely ditching Windows.
Terr_ 8mo ago
Gamer for a few decades, this year home desktop is finally Linux. (Though my work laptops were already that way.)
- subscribed 8mo ago
  I just need a better Nvidia support for something outside Arch niche (cachyos) in this space. I'm already packed and ready to migrate. Can't wait.
  - sh3rl0ck 8mo ago
    Never had Nvidia issues on Fedora and Ubuntu so far, 1P a multi computer research lab as well.
  - RunningDroid 8mo ago
    > I just need a better Nvidia support… Unfortunately Nvidia support mostly depends on Nvidia, they've done their best to keep info about their cards away from the Open Source driver projects.
- pjmlp 8mo ago
  Which is why it is relevant to foster a native Linux gaming ecosystem, and not one that depends on running Windows games.
Semaphor 8mo ago
Alas, while all new development is on .net core, the main money maker is a .net 4.8 website, so no way to move off windows for me, for now (no, I don't want to dual boot).
direwolf20 8mo ago
Which distribution?
- meandmycode 8mo ago
  I personally went with https://endeavouros.com/ https://endeavouros.com/ in the end, so far working really great, I appreciate Linux distributions will have different audiences which is great, I think regardless of distribution though it seems like a lot more software (and hardware) is 'just working' and it's actually delightful to use the computer again, kudos to many hard working people making free software

int_19h 8mo ago

AI is the best thing that happened to desktop Linux!

digiown 8mo ago
This actually. AI is dramatically better at helping users deal with perennial issues that Linux gets, and using the command line to fix them, compared to Microsoft's fresh new bug introduced last Tuesday or navigating anti-user GUI.
- wookmaster 8mo ago
  You’re absolutely correct what used to take me hours reading docs and googling now takes minutes to find an answer to. Just this week my new beelink I couldnt get hardware acceleration working for transcoding. A couple prompts lead me to the fact the gpu was new and I needed a newer Linux kernel. I probably would have spent hours and hours fiddling with device drivers and configs in the past.
- therein 8mo ago
  That is true but I believe he meant it as Microsoft shoving AI down your throat in every part of Windows driving people away into Linux.
- raincole 8mo ago
  That sounds... quite bad, to be honest. I never met one single Windows issue that can't be answered by simple google search for years. A desktop expecting the user to ask AI(!) for solutions that require command line(!!) is definitely not for average users.
  - WD-42 8mo ago
    Because hacking the registry or installing 3rd party de-bloat tools is for average users? You only think so because you've done it a bunch of times.
  - jwrallie 8mo ago
    High user count will make much more information available, but once in a while you will hit one bad issue that is niche enough, and your only hope will be to reach MS. At that point I'd rather deal with an LLM that know the insides of my open source OS than MS support. Have you seen their community answers on the web? I'd rather deal with Arch wiki and the command line even without an LLM.
- bbkane 8mo ago
  I've been amazed at AI's usefulness for Linux sysadmin tasks. Last week I installed KDE on a new computer with two identical SSDs. One I wanted to wipe for the OS and the other I wanted to keep the data on. Unfortunately I couldn't tell which one to install the OS on! ChatGPT helped me open a terminal and run the correct udevadm and lsblk commands to see what files existed on each disk.
  - bubblethink 8mo ago
    Good use case and an example of brokenness of UX on Linux in many small and subtle ways. It frustrates me to no end that GNOME, Nautilus, etc. will truncate or hide information in many places. I don't think this has been fixed but the launcher will truncate names with ellipsis. So analyzer will appear as "anal..."
- x______________ 8mo ago
  >AI is dramatically better at helping users deal with perennial issues that Linux gets This was my first thought. All Linux troubleshooting with AI resulted in hallucinatory commands that don't exist or work on this version of the OS, and managed to help me trash one system installation. Has anything changed?
  - subscribed 8mo ago
    A lot has changed since ChatGPT 2.0. You could give it a go again :)
thorum 8mo ago
AI for help figuring things out and Timeshift for when you accidentally break something. One reboot and it’s fixed.
bpavuk 8mo ago
given that: - AI is what gave Nvidia reason to finally work on GPU drivers (Linux is premier environment for AI/ML workloads) - LLMs are more useful on Linux than on Windows (although manuals are still unbeatable) - Windows users are sick of Copilot bullshit ...yeah, I almost agree. the best thing that happened to Linux is Valve consistently pouring a ton of resources into open-source Linux projects, but AI bubble firmly holds the second place position.

gregoryl 8mo ago

Ditto, but .net dev for ~20 years, now fully Linux for personal compute. Workplace is making a beeline for mac / linux full stack, and completely ditching Windows.

Terr_ 8mo ago

Gamer for a few decades, this year home desktop is finally Linux. (Though my work laptops were already that way.)

subscribed 8mo ago
I just need a better Nvidia support for something outside Arch niche (cachyos) in this space. I'm already packed and ready to migrate. Can't wait.
- sh3rl0ck 8mo ago
  Never had Nvidia issues on Fedora and Ubuntu so far, 1P a multi computer research lab as well.
- RunningDroid 8mo ago
  > I just need a better Nvidia support… Unfortunately Nvidia support mostly depends on Nvidia, they've done their best to keep info about their cards away from the Open Source driver projects.
pjmlp 8mo ago
Which is why it is relevant to foster a native Linux gaming ecosystem, and not one that depends on running Windows games.

Semaphor 8mo ago

Alas, while all new development is on .net core, the main money maker is a .net 4.8 website, so no way to move off windows for me, for now (no, I don't want to dual boot).

direwolf20 8mo ago

Which distribution?

meandmycode 8mo ago
I personally went with https://endeavouros.com/ https://endeavouros.com/ in the end, so far working really great, I appreciate Linux distributions will have different audiences which is great, I think regardless of distribution though it seems like a lot more software (and hardware) is 'just working' and it's actually delightful to use the computer again, kudos to many hard working people making free software